Thirty

 Me with my parents {circa 1980}

 Me with my Grandpa and Nana

After college, one of the first interviews I ever went on, I was asked the age-old question, “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” I gave some canned response but the truth is, I didn’t really know. I had some vague ideas of how I expected my life to turn out, but nothing really concrete.

 Angela and me

 

 The Voyles {1986}

With no definitive goals in mind, I had various thoughts floating around in my head of what I assumed I would have accomplished by age 30. Today I turn 30 and there is a part of me that feels like I failed in not reaching these goals… I thought that I would be well traveled, that I would have a job I loved and that I might have started a family by now. In reality I am where I am because of the choices I made, I have traveled quite a bit {the focus of my travels shifted to visiting family instead of exploring the world}, I’ve had several jobs that I liked {but most recently had to leave because being with my husband was more important that any job} and we have yet to start a family {though we did adopt our dog, Sophie, last year}.  

 The Voyles visiting Papua New Guinea {1994}

High school/church youth group friends {1998}

Overall I have a really good life and I am blessed in many ways, but a small part of me still feels like I have somehow failed. Daniel thinks I need to shift my thinking and focus on the things I have accomplished instead of dwelling on what I think I have missed out on. Of course he is right, but that is easier said than done.

 Angela, me and Mark in North Bay, Ontario

Mark and me

29 was a really hard year for me. It brought a lot of change. And turmoil. And uncertainty. Loved ones were suffering and there was nothing I could do. For four long months, I lived six hours away from Daniel. In a lot of ways it was a tough year, but it also provided opportunities to grow as a person. 29 showed me what I was made of.  

 

College roommates: Lisa and Julie

 Me with Roxy, who introduced me to spelunking

So here I am at 30. I hope that the things I had expected to accomplish by 30 will come to fruition {maybe in the next 10 years?}. I hope that I make peace with who I am and that I will be thankful for what God has given me and for what is in store for my future. The first 30 years have been pretty amazing, but I hope that the next 30 years are the best years of my life.

 In Europe, hiking in the alps and touring Rome {summer 2000}

My Next Thirty Years by Tim McGraw
I think I’ll take a moment, celebrate my age
The ending of an era and the turning of a page
Now it’s time to focus in on where I go from here
Lord have mercy on my next thirty years

 Daniel proposes {spring 2002}

College graduation, the Voyles {and Daniel} with Grandma and Grandpa Davis {May 2002}

Hey my next thirty years I’m gonna have some fun
Try to forget about all the crazy things I’ve done
Maybe now I’ve conquered all my adolescent fears
And I’ll do it better in my next thirty years

 

Getting married {December 16, 2002}

Rock climbing trip

My next thirty years I’m gonna settle all the scores
Cry a little less, laugh a little more
Find a world of happiness without the hate and fear
Figure out just what I’m doing here
In my next thirty years

Trip to Mexico for friend's wedding {we drove 36 hours EACH way}

 

One of many hiking trips

Oh my next thirty years, I’m gonna watch my weight
Eat a few more salads and not stay up so late
Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers
Maybe I’ll remember my next thirty years

 Backpacking, Mt. Rogers, Virginia

Climbing South Sister Mountain in Oregon

My next thirty years will be the best years of my life
Raise a little family and hang out with my wife
Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear
Make up for lost time here, in my next thirty years
In my next thirty years 

Karaoke with friends from work

 Max Patch, North Carolina with Daniel and Sophie

Mistaken Journal

I keep a notebook where I write down passages that stick out to me from the books I read. I suppose that this notebook looks like a journal because tonight Daniel told me that he had noticed my open notebook on the counter and started reading the "entry" while he ate breakfast this morning.

He was initially worried because it read as follows:

There's only one thing I worry about and that's getting lonely... loneliness will creep up on anybody at any time. You go on doin what you been doin all your life, one day to another, and then the next thing you know, there's nobody around... And even though you love to cook more than anything, you stop turnin on the stove. And you don't want to put on clothes because you ain't goin nowhere...

Once he read it all the way through, he realized it was from a book {The Sweet By and By} and not my personal writing. His confession made me chuckle.

Yoga

This morning I got up and met a friend at the local Rec Center for yoga. This was my first time to go to yoga in forever. I wasn't really sure what to expect in this small town in Alabama but since I need to exercise and I enjoy yoga, I decided to at least give it a chance. 

Unfortunately neither of us brought our own mats {I didn't think to because in Charlotte you just use the ones provided by the Y}. Thankfully the instructor had two extras so we were able to stay and participate.

The instructor was tough – especially when we got to the ab workout. It was hard {and it seemed to go on forever}. I am going to be sore for a while, but I was pleasantly surprised and plan on going back.

We discovered that there is actually one aerobics class offered on Tuesday and Thursday mornings as well as a Hip Hop Dance class {maybe like Zumba?} in the evenings. And we can always try the line dancing and clogging classes! I think I will stick to yoga and aerobics and maybe some racquetball. I am thankful that there are at least a couple of classes that I am interested in.

I have to share one funny comment from the yoga instructor... towards the end we did some inverted poses and our instructor came over and asked us if we had any pace makers or heart problems! She was obviously joking, but she said she was required to ask since several participants have pace makers!

{via}

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 42

 

Earlier this year, one of my college friends wrote a review of The Sweet By and By by Todd Johnson. After reading her review, I decided to add it to my reading list. I finally got a hold of a copy and overall I would say that I really liked it. It reminded me a lot of the movie Steel Magnolias {one of my favorites}. 

I don't know that I am sold on the writing style. It is about five women, but told through the voices of four of them. Each chapter is from the point of view of that particular character. This seems to be a trend lately. I would say that one of the original author's to use this technique was Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury. More recent books that employ this style are The Help,  Little Bee and Commencement. Some authors do a great job, some are mediocre. For me, The Sweet By and By fell somewhere in the middle.

Todd Johnson approaches the subject of southern women who are aging and approaching death. It is a difficult subject that we don't particularly like to think about. It seems that our society is more bent on marginalizing the elderly than we are including them as a part of society. Johnson does a great job of dealing with this subject matter as well as writing from a woman's perspective. I would definitely recommend this book.

Passages that stuck with me from the book:

It's awful to know things in your mind that won't come out of your mouth. Sometimes I give up, but most of the time I go ahead and say whatever comes, and if it rubs your the wrong way, I'm sorry.

I look down at the closed eyes. This is a position that is so familiar to me, seeing someone lean their head back into my sink with their eyes closed. They look peaceful, like they can let go of everything for a few minutes, not think about anything, and let somebody take care of them by running water through their hair and fingers over their scalp.

Rising up when you're weak makes a person stronger. By standing, they're saying that Rhonda matters and they matter too. I feel better when I think about how showing respect to one person makes every person worth more. Standing in this crowd makes the ladies as much a part of life as anybody else.

A funeral home is a safe place for death only, while a church building at least gets to witness every stage of life.

There's only one thing I worry about and that's getting lonely... loneliness will creep up on anybody at any time. You go on doin what you been doin all your life, one day to another, and then the next thing you know, there's nobody around. That's when you know you're old, when all your people start dieing and your phone don't ring and you don't feel like puttin up a Christmas tree cause who's gon see it but you. And you don't bother to plant flowers in the spring cause you decide they're too much trouble to take care of. And even though you love to cook more than anything, you stop turnin on the stove. And you don't want to put on clothes because you ain't goin nowhere. And you tell the sames stories over and over cause having new stories means livin and you're not living, you're sittin in your chair or lying in a bed with the only thing going on being what's in your head. And the thing that you never let yourself think about has happened: people have forgotten you.

Project 52 Date Nights: The Simple Things

Since we moved into our new house last Tuesday, we have been without TV. Like none. Nada. It's actually a little weird not to have something to wind down to at the end of the day. Together.

The reason we don't have TV is that we can only get satellite in the country and we don't want to pay for it. Besides that, our current TV is way too old to try to pick up HDTV channels through an antenna.

All of this to say, it's been a bit different and we are trying to adapt. Most nights, this has meant I sit on the couch with a laptop or a book and Daniel sits in the oversized armchair with the other laptop. The weirdest thing for me is that it is so quiet. We sometimes have Pandora streaming music, but mostly it is really quiet.

Last night Daniel came home from playing racquetball and asked if I wanted to do something. I wasn't sure what he was getting at because we are in the country and there isn't much to do {maybe drive to Walmart to walk around???}. Turns out he wanted to go lay in the hammock outside. It was nice. Much better than sitting in silence in front of our separate gray boxes.

Back to the TV thing, we decided to order a flat screen television that will {hopefully} pick up some free HDTV channels. It will be here tomorrow – yay for Amazon.com and FedEx delivering to the country!

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 41

Over the Edge of the World by Laurence Bergreen is a look at the life of Magellan and his circumnavigation of the globe. At a time when superstition and myths reigned, it is amazing that Magellan and his crew had the courage to embark on such a trip. 

I really enjoyed this look into history. Magellan set sail from Spain with an armada of five ships {being chased by the Portuguese who were angry that he had deserted their country}; he found a strait across South America and managed to traverse the uncharted Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately he was killed in the Philippines {due to his own arrogance} and only one of his original ships made it back to Spain {after 3 years at sea} with a fraction of the original crew. 

A few excerpts from the book:

Spices have played an essential economic role in civilizations since antiquity. Like oil today, the European quest for spices drove the world's economy and influenced global politics, and like oil today, spices became inextricably intwined with exploration, conquest, {and} imperialism.

Europeans knew little about the ocean beyond latitude 27N... It was believed that the waters south of this point teemed with monsters, that their storms made them too violent to navigate, and that inescapable fogs would envelop wayward ships.

Why did sailors put up with it all? Why did the ordinary seaman and trained officers abandon hearth and home to live amid these grim circumstances for years on end? Why did they endure starvation rations, the indignity and agony of the lash and the stocks, torment by vermin, thirst, sunstroke, and the lack of women? They went to sea for a variety of reasons, for glory and greed, for escape, out of habit, out of desperation, and through pure chance.

In the course of the voyage, Magellan had managed to outwit death many times. He overcame natural hazards ranging from storms to scurvy, and human hazards in the form of mutinies. In the end, the only peril he could not survive was the greatest one of all: himself.

They had seen a great deal, and although they failed to understand much of what they experienced, they had made records for others to study, enlarging the European knowledge of the world. They had circled the globe, only to demonstrate that the world was a larger place than previously imagined... Banished were phenomena such as mermaids, boiling water at the equator, and a magnetic island capable of pulling the nails from passing ships. All these discoveries came at the cost of over two hundred lives and extreme hardships. No other voyage was as prolonged or complicated as this one; no other voyage during the Age of Discovery would ever equal it for the ambition or daring.

Unpacking Progress

Boxes ready to be unpacked in the kitchen.

We have made a pretty significant dent in our unpacking. Part of the holdup at this point is that we have a ton of closet space but no real closet organization system. Very few shelves and no bars to hang clothes on!

 Kitchen in progress.

The first thing to be unpacked was the kitchen.

Unpacked kitchen.

 Goodbye eating out for most of our meals!

Unpacked boxes.

The second big thing was buying and putting together our new table and chairs {we sold our old table in Charlotte because we didn't love it and we had purchased it through Craigslist – we just sent it back into the CL universe}.

Driving home from Atlanta with our new table, chairs and sideboard.

I have one slight conundrum in the kitchen. I own a lot of spices and have nowhere to put them. I am considering buying a spice rack, but it needs to hold ALL of my spices and most spice racks seem to come with spices {I don't exactly need more spices}...

Suggestions would be appreciated.